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tv   The Last Word With Lawrence O Donnell  MSNBC  October 26, 2015 7:00pm-8:01pm PDT

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tries to campaign for votes in iowa but, again, jesse benton, one of rand paul's key aides, has been acquitted of all wrong doing by a federal jury in iowa. not guilty. and now that he's been found not guilty, he's now already back in charge running the america's liberty super pac trying to get rand paul elected president. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." >> question quick maybe you can help me with. why is rand paul still run for president? >> i imagine it's more fun than holding on to his doomed senate seat in kentucky. >> there's that. with joe biden out, hillary clinton and bernie sanders have each noticed that there is only within person standing between each of them and the democratic presidential nomination. and donald trump suddenly
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refuses to believe the polls. the polls showing him running behind ben carson. >> the doctor is dominating the donald in the latest iowa polls. >> i don't believe i did fall behind. >> the trump campaign is never going to admit that there's anything wrong. >> if they don't give it to you, you got to give it to yourself. does that make sense? >> he also going after ben carson on his religion. >> i mean, seventh day adventist i don't know about. i just don't know about. >> you know, i really refuse to really get into the mud pit. >> i think ben carson's a very low-energy person. >> there was a time when i was, you know, very volatile, when i was 14 and i tried to stab someone. >> i've tried to murder no one, ever. how am i losing to these people? >> actually i think ben carson is lower energy than jeb. >> i've got a lot of other cool things i could dothan be misable listening to people demonize me. >> jeb bush is in houston, texas, trying to reassure donors
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he's still in it to win it. >> he's meeting today with mommy and daddy and they're working on their campaign. >> the whisper campaign's already started that bush is falling apart. >> blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. that's my answer. blah, blah, blah. donald trump is in trouble. he is in trouble in iowa where ben carson has opened a big lead over donald trump in the latest poll out today. now, here's how donald trump reacted this morning to two earlier polls that had come out on thursday and friday showing ben carson with an eight-point lead in one poll and a nine-point lead in the other. >> iowa's a problem all of a sudden. you've fallen behind ben carson, why? >> i don't believe i did fall behind. it was one poll, a second poll, small polls. i was in iowa three days ago. we had a town hall that was unbelievab unbelievable, packed.
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>> wait, wait, wait. what was that first thing that he said? >> i don't believe i did fall behind. >> so -- so now we know how donald trump reacts when he falls behind in a poll. he simply denies that he has fallen behind, and then he tries to suggest that there's something wrong with those polls, des moines register poll and quinnipiac registry polls. legitimate polls. about four hours after donald trump said that on the "today" show this morning the monmouth university poll comes out showing ben carson with a much bigger lead over donald trump, 14-point lead. monmouth, 32%. donald trump down at 18%. ted cruz at 10%. marco rubio at 10%. jeb bush at 8%. now it's ben carson's turn. here's what donald trump said about carson on saturday when
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carson pulled ahead of him in those first two polls. >> carson super low. i don't understand. carson is lower energy than bush. i don't understand what's going on. because we're going to talk about the fact that for the first time in 100 days i had a poll that said i'm in second place in iowa. oh, don't worry. don't worry. only in iowa. the rest, we're killing. >> and while he was at it, donald trump raised ben carson's religion. seventh day adventist, a religion like most religions that donald trump doesn't know anything about. >> look, i don't have to say it, i'm presbytarian. can you believe it? i don't know can believe impress tearian. i'm presbytarian. i'm presbytarian. boy, that's down the middle of the road, folks, in all fairness. i mean, seventh day adventist i don't know about. i just don't know about. >> here is ben carson's response
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on sunday morning. >> it's kind of interesting because the conflict that we had a couple months ago is he thought he was questioning his faith and he went ballistic on that. so it seems a little interest that he would now be doing that. you know, i really refuse to really get into the mud pit. >> joining us now kasie hunt, msnbc political correspondent joins us from boulder, colorado, the site of wednesday's republican debate on cnbc. and also with us, opinion writer for the "washington post" on msnbc political analyst and jonathan allen, chief political voernt for voks, also the co-author of hrc state secrets and the rebirth of hillary clinton, and joining us rick wilson, republican strategist and contributor to "the daily beast" and politico. rick, give us the republican read on the carson surge in iowa ahead of trump.
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>> it shows you how important the predicate donald was of saying i'm ahead in every poll. he's behind in those two, the wisconsin radio poll behind carson, inside the margin in five other surveys out there in the last ten day or so. so he's getting very nervous abs keep that narrative of i'm the winner, the alpha, the big guy. lashing out at ben carson which is a difficult position to be in because the guy is unbelievably likable and people, you know, even if they're not supporting carson, they find him to be a nice guy and a pleasant guy and a mindful kind of guy. so trump's freak-out on this and his complete loss of his -- loss of control about it, i think is a preview for what's going to happen in the future. i think it's going to get louder and augustlier which is much like trump's casinos the way they go downhill when they start to collapse. >> let's listen to what trump said about ben carson's religion appropriately on sunday morning with george stephanopoulos. >> why raise it?
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>> because i just said i don't know about it. i said nothing about it. i would never say bad. i would never say bad about any religi religion. as you know, i think you had a quote on, i said exactly, i don't know about it. so, you know. >> ben carson -- >> that's not an insult. >> ben carson has asked for an apology, will you give it to him? >> i didn't say -- >> we learn new things in this campaign every day. by the way, they've done some great work, the adventists, on religious freedom. i mean, i don't think the result in iowa is in the least bit surprising. ben carson has an enormous base among evangelicals who have been hearing his speech, reading his book shs and the ree van gel call backed candidate usually
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wins in iowa. huckabee in '08. rick santorum in 2012. i think trump is making -- sort of nuts to go after ben carson, number one. and number two, he is probably going to love iowa. i don't know why he doesn't let it go and keep moving on. it's a crazy thing he's doing. and, you know, we thought he would get in trouble for talking about mccain. we would he would get in trouble for this or that. could it be that ben carson is going to be the guy to bring him down? >> kasie hunt, trump still is in the lead in the polls of the states that were -- where the votes will come in after iowa. new hampshire, he's in the latest 38% and carson is at 12% in the latest poll there. south carolina, trump is at 40%, carson's at 23%. nevada, trump 38%, carson 22%. that seems to be what the trump campaign is focused on now. >> it seems that way, lawrence,
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yes. but i think a good reminder for any of these presidential campaigns is all of those polls change after the results in iowa come in. and sometimes the voters in iowa -- i'm sorry, new hampshire will simply reject a candidate just because they won iowa on the republican side it's been particularly difficult to win both of those in a row. but you know on carson's religion i will say trump has hit on possibly the one thing that he could ultimately undercut carson with as e.j. was saying. it is pretty hard for these guys to go after carson. he's mild mannered, liked especially among older white women. but if his primary focus is going to be evangelicals, remember the romney campaign, there was a lot of private discussion about the fact that his religion ultimately was a problem for him winning there. for a long time in american politics being catholic could be something that you whispered about. frankly, what donald trump had to say wasn't a dog whistle because the dog whistle is something you can't actually
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hear and this is something that he said out loud, you know, to evangelicals in iowa. >> yeah, but i don't -- e.j., you're our senior religion correspondent here in this group. i don't see -- people have said there's something of a conflict between seventh day adventists and evangelicals. >> they celebrate the sabbath differently which is why they've done good work on first amendment rights, one of the reasons. but i don't see that. but kasie put her finger on, you know, trying to understand what trump was doing which isn't always easy. it is absolutely the case that carson is very strong right now in iowa among evangelicals. he's got to undercut that vote. i just don't ea prejudice against adventists among evangelicals bringing him down like that. >> someone clearly whispered in trump's ear that seventh day adventists have in some of their doctrines, some kind of unkind
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thoughts about other christian sects. but it's not something that they make a lot of noise about and it's pretty hard to get traction on that. i think anyway. jonathan allen, the trump strategy will probably soon become a post-iowa strategy. it's unclear to me how he goes into iowa and make up what he's lost there. >> i think it's very hard, lawrence. the only thing i would point to on that is that only 20% in that monmouth poll of likely caucus goers have said they're firm in who they're going the vote for. i think that's got to be encouraging to some of the other candidates, some of the non-trump, non-carson candidates. but this strategy in iowa is pretty unusual. ben carson's favorability rating in that poll was 84%. i would take 84% in my own household. you know, so going after him may not be the best strategy for trump to build his own numbers.
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but after that, so what he's got to do is build a firewall. i think maybe giving up on iowa soon is a good idea for him because it seems, as you suggest, unlikely he's going to make up that distance. >> all right. let's listen to what the new republican front-runner in iowa said on "meet the press" yesterday about his energy. >> i have plenty of energy, but, you know, i am soft-spoken. i do have a tendency to be relaxed. i wasn't always like that. there was a time when i was, you know, very volatile. but, you know, i changed. >> when was that? >> as a teenager. i would go after people with rocks and bricks and baseball bats and hammers and, of course, many people know the story when i was 14 and i tried to stab someone. and you know, fortunately, you know, my life has been changed. i'm a very different person now. >> rick wilson, the new republican front-runner in iowa
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is a very different person than he was as a teenager, which i think we can say about every candidate who is running. >> well, i think -- >> every person, lawrence. >> i think that carson's -- his affect is so zen and so mindful and so peaceful that it makes a lot of these attacks on him very hard to see how they work in terms of the audience in iowa particularly, and i think in some ways with the broader republican audience as well. it is very difficult. the guy is like a stone in the rain. you just -- it's very hard to see how that kind of attack is going to have the traction it might on another person. and he does -- there are two candidates that feel trump doesn't seem to get in their head and that's carson and rubio. neither of whom seem bothered in the way that say jeb gets bothered by trump's little needling. >> yeah, wow is jeb bothered. which republican presidential candidate said this? iowa is a democrat, a fairly
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radical democrat. tweet us your guess. the answer is coming up. and jeb bush has got to come up with a better answer when he's asked if his presidential campaign is struggling. ♪ i built my business with passion. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet? if you have high blomay raise e many cold medicines may raise your blood pressure. that's why there's coricidin® hbp. it relieves cold symptoms without raising blood pressure. so look for powerful cold medicine with a heart. coricidin® hbp. diis critical for brain health?n
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asked about an old friend thomas sten berg who urged him to do health care reform in massachusetts when romney was governor. mitt romney said to the boston globe, quote, without romneycare i don't think we would have obamacare. so without tom a lot of people wouldn't have health insurance. remember when mitt romney was opposed to obamacare, which he is now saying, has provided a lot of people with health insurance and making it very clear that that's a really good thing? up next, the republican
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. which republican candidate told glen beck two years ago that he wouldn't run for president because he would, quote, be a terrible candidate, end quote. it is the same republican candidate who told yahoo! political correspondent john ward, quote, i was a democrat, a fairly radical democrat. the candidate said that when he was explaining why he was once in favor of abortion rights.
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here is what that candidate said about abortion yesterday. >> definitively, do you want to see roe vs. wade overturned? >> mault ultimately, yes. >> does that mean all abortions illegal or exception that you have? >> i'm a reasonable person. and if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, i'll listen. >> life and health of the mother? >> again, that's an extraordinarily rare situation. but if that very rare situation occurred, i believe there's room to discuss that. >> rape and incest? >> rape and incest, i would not be in favor of killing the baby because the baby came object in that way. all you have to do is go and look up the many stories of people who have led very useful
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lives who were the result of rape or incest. >> what if somebody has an unwanted pregnancy, should they have the right to terminate it? >> no. think about this. during slavery, and i know that's one of those words you're not supposed to say but i'm saying. during slavery, a lot of slave owners thought that they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave, anything that they chose to do. and, you know, what if the abolitionists had said, you know, i don't believe in slavery. i think it's wrong. but you guys do whatever you want to do. where would we be? >> joining us now, john ward, senior political correspondent for yahoo! whose piece "the political education of ben carson" is on yahoo!.com. john, i was really struck by his answer to chuck todd yesterday and his answers to you in your piece about the very same question, which is what is his
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position on roe versus wade. you couldn't get an answer out of him and you tried repeatedly. it left me wondering in reading the piece, did he know what roe versus wait is whwade is? >> i think he did. we went back and forth four or five times on this matter, so i think he knew what it was. but i was left pretty puzzled by that because it seemed pretty clear that he's against abortion in that interview. he does have statements in the past about 20 years ago or so where he's on the record saying he would not want abortion to be illegal but it seemed like in that moment he was saying i want abortion not to happen but he wouldn't come out and say that he wanted the law to be overturned. it hadn't crossed my mind that he didn't know what roev. wade
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was. that's possible, i think. >> when i watch him, and let's just grant right off the bat that this is a guy whose head is filled with the most important information in the world, which is to save lives, everything he knows as a physician, as a surgeon, as a brain surgeon. his brain is filled with much more important information than mine ever will be. but he seems to know next to nothing about government. and he seems like someone facing an oral exam where he knows he's unprepared. >> yeah, i think one of the clearest examples of this was actually on his answer on "guns" over the summer because not too long ago he had said that he didn't want automatic rifles in cities. he then came back and said a little bit later i didn't know you're supposed to say that you're in favor of the second amendment.
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i'm paraphrasing but that's essentially what he said. i think that's the clearest answer i've ever heard from anybody in politics who said i didn't realize what the political answer was. and for him to say that shows such a lack of political sophistication that's kind of jaw dropping. >> yeah, your piece shows him wandering his way through the gun issue and adjusting here and there and thinking that, well, you know, we shouldn't have certain kinds of weapons in urban centers. but, you know, you can have them somewhere else. you know, not understanding that federal law is for all 50 states and you can't do a federal law that's just about baltimore or somewhere else. >> yeah. and it just, i think again, i think it just shows that he hasn't even worked through what his thoughts mean in the context of law and politics. he really is discovering it. i think your phrase wandering is true. i think he's discovering it as
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it goes. so far it hasn't made much of an impact in his standing in the polls however. >> jon, as far as his quiet manner is concerned, in your interview you said he spoke so quietly you were worried your tape recorder wasn't going to pick it up. >> that's right. we were sitting in an suv. there was a bag between us. and i -- i don't think i've ever had to do this where i am in a car and i have to hold my phone, my recorder like three inches from his face because otherwise the noise from the -- coming from outside the car was going to drown out his voice. he was very soft-spoken. not a lot of eye contact. not a lot of smiles. yeah, so, pretty small personality in that situation. >> the mandatory reading tonight about the new republican front-runner in iowa, the political education of ben carson, jon ward, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thanks for having me. coming up next, what is the worst thing, i mean, the worst
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can usually summarize what they've said with blah, blah, blah. i mean, they never literally say blah, blah, blah. >> blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. that's my answer, blah, blah,
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blah. >> wow. what question could possibly have gotten jeb bush to tell the truth like that? >> that bush is fall ag part -- >> blah, blah, blah. >> you know what they're saying out there. >> that's my answer, blah, blah, blah. >> oh, man, jeb is going to need a better answer. team bush, including both presidents bush have spent the last couple of days in houston in closed door meetings for what some are calling the rescue operation for jeb bush's presidential campaign. after his campaign announced major budget cuts including slashing salarying for staff, jeb bush said this. >> made an adjustment in our campaign. that's what leaders do. there's been a new phenomenon in our party, the rise of candidates that have had no practical experience in politics. they are the front-runners right now. they will be held to account just like all of us will. i've made an adjustment to
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harness the resources of our campaign, which are probably more than other campaigns. >> the bush campaign has spent morme money in new hampshire thn anywhere else. in a new cbs news poll finds they've gotten nothing for that money. donald trump is leading in new hampshire with 38%. ben carson is second with 12%. jeb bush is in third with 8%. that's up two points in that poll since last month. at a town hall saturday in south carolina jeb bush was so frustrated he said this. >> i don't want to be elected president. >> okay. he actually said a little more than that. >> if this election is about how we're going to fight to get nothing done, then i don't want anything -- i don't want any part of it. i don't want to be elected president to sit around and see gridlock just become so dominant that people literally are in decline in their lives. that is not my motivation. i got a lot of really cool things that i could do other than sit around being miserable
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listening to people demonize me and me feeling compelled to demonize them. that is a joke. elect trump if you want that. ifout want somebody -- if you want somebody who has a heart for people, who can fight for people, and can fix these things, then there are a couple of there people and i believe i'm the best one. that's what we should be focused on. >> back with us kasie hunt, e.j., and rick wilson. rick will so, one thing that seems to me you never want to do as a political candidate is challenge the voters to elect the front-runner. >> you know, i think the stumble jeb made in those statements that i think was the most meaningful was saying he could go do other cool things. if you don't think being the president is the coolest thing out there then you've got to think about your messaging overall, you've got to think about how you're approaching this with the voters. you should be coming to them with a vision and with a prospective, optimistic, forward looking vision.
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the other part of this is that jeb is misreading a lot of this audience out there right now and they are responding to anger. they are responding to anxiety. they are responding to aggression. and you know, i've seen jeb in tougher calm -- in tough campaigns in florida punching a lot harder than he's punching right now. i think that he's going to have to do that. he's going to have to adjust on that front and he's going to have to realize that donald trump is the guy eating his lunch. nobody else in this field. and start stepping it up. voters are not going to respond to anything else except a match-up where these guys bump chests at some point. >> kasie hunt, the problem is that's his version of a punch at trump, elect donald trump if you want the kind of noise that trump makes. >> deep frustration. part of this, lawrence, is jeb bush, if you talk to people who know him pretty well, they will say -- and you talk to people who have been around a lot of politicians, as you know there are competitive punch. jeb bush is one of the most
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competitive of a very come pet i group of people. and i think what you're seeing there on that stage is a reflection of just how frustrating it is to try and compete against donald trump because nobody can figure out how to do it. not just jeb bush but the entire network of people who surround him, you saw that "new york times" story about his father in the paper this morning not understanding this republican party that he feels like he was a standard bearer for for a long time. john sununu in new hampshire saying, listen, if i told you that i understood where this electorate is, i would be making it up. that's what you're seeing in those comments he made in south carolina. >> we watch donald trump come out of the gate as a candidate go after jeb bush nonstop at the beginning. it was as if no other republican candidate existed. he just wanted to take him down. let's listen to what trump said about jeb bush today. >> his campaign is a disaster. that's because i came along. i'm proud of it. but bush is now cutting salaries
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by 40% and 50%. and i say if you can cut 40% to 50% and they're all taking it, everybody is saying, we'll take it. why didn't you do that seven months ago? if they take it now, they're going to take it then. so why didn't you do it seven months ago? so he's meeting now with mom and dad. no, it's true. he needs counsel. >> e.j., trump i guess so tab credit. he says, you know, when i came along that's when the bush campaign went south. and he's right. that's what the polls show. >> well, he's entirely right about that. this is another new thing in the campaign. i don't think i've ever heard a candidate criticize another candidate for the salary structure of his campaign. but -- >> or their parents. >> yes. >> the fascinating thing about bush is he has said and i think he meant that he really wants to run a positive campaign.
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and yet he has now been put in a position where he's got to run a negative campaign in two different directions. on the one hand, trump made him started to bring him down. bush thought he could get back into the race by attacking trump. that wasn't very effective. now his campaign is going after rubio. there is a power point that his campaign puts out that has the real killer pointing that says marco is a gop obama. and so what you've got is jeb in this really difficult position because he and rubio are in competition for the normal or old-fashioned position. and in the meantime he's still got to fight off trump. no wonder he says he's miserable. >> we're going to take a break here. kasie hunt and rick wilson, thanks for joining us tonight. e.j. will stick around frktsz coming up, hillary clinton and bernie sanders are finally talking about each other.
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listen to bernie sanders 20 years ago in the house of representatives responding to republican congressman duke cunningham who attacked democrats who supported allowing gay people to serve in the military. >> the same ones that would put homos in the military, the same ones that would not fund brach, the same ones that would not clear up -- >> mr. chairman. >> sit down, you socialist. >> my ears may have been playing a trick on me but i thought i heard the gentleman a moment ago say something, quote, unquote, about homos in the military. was i right in hear that expressi expression? >> absolutely. >> you said something ability homos in the military. was the gentleman referring to the many thousands and thousands of gay people who have put their lives on the line in countless wars defending this country? is that the group of people the gentleman was referring to? >> i'm talking about the military people in the military do not support -- >> that's not what we're talking about. the you used the word, homos i
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the military. you are insulting thousands. >> i'm talking about you and liberals like you that keep defending. >> reclaiming my time, mr. chairman. >> duke cunningham was later convicted of accepting bribes and was sent to prison. up next, bernie sanders believes the political past " "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪
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but the quicksilver card from capital one likes to keep it simple. real simple. i'm talking easy like-a- walk-in-the-park, nothing-to-worry-about, man-that-feels-good simple. quicksilver earns you unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. it's a simple question. what's in your wallet? tnchtsz rose garden last week joe biden made it very clear that he decided not to run for president because he couldn't win, but for anyone who didn't understand that, last night on "60 minutes" he said this. >> is it that you think you couldn't win or that you didn't want to run? >> couldn't win. i'll be very blunt. if i thought we could have put together the campaign that our
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supporters deserved and our contributors deserved, i would have gone ahead and done it. >> with joe biden out of the race, bernie sanders is finally focusing on what stands between him and the democratic n nomination for president, hillary clinton. in iowa on sunday hillary clinton and bernie sanders each addressed the jefferson jackson dinner. they each made veiled references to each other. >> i know -- i know and you know, it's not enough just to rail against the republicans or the billion theiraires. we actually have to win this election in order to rebuild the middle class and make a positive difference in people's lives. >> today some are trying to rewrite history by saying they voted for one anti-gay law to stop something worse. that's not the case. there was a small minority in the house opposed to
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discriminating against our gay brothers and sisters, and i am pro proud that i was one of those members. >> in the last hour with rachel maddow bernie sanders said this. >> and then we get to this issue of doma. here is my point. simple point. i have had in many years in politics, had to make tough votes. as you just indicated, the times then were very, very different. we had ahomophobia. it bothered me to hear secretary clinton say, something worse. that just wasn't true. >> joining us now april ryan, white house correspondent and washington bureau chief for american urban radio networks and back with us jonathan allen. april, there's bernie sanders trying to bring the political past into this campaign. something that we haven't seen much of before. >> well, you know, bernie
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sanders is someone who has been unbought and unbossed and unboughed. but now he's having to succumb to the pressure that he made a little faux pas at the debate where he gave hillary clinton entrance to stardom, i guess, another piece of her stardom in the last two weeks. then she went on for the benghazi hearing and she's now at this incredible level. people are looking at her as possibly the democratic nominee. more so than they did a couple weeks, couple months ago. so now he's got to really fight against her, something that he didn't want to do. but he's got to do it. he, you know, talked to my on his birthday and he said, you know, he likes the fact that people are feeling the burn to a certain extent. he likes the fact that people are moving in his direction but in order for those people to move in his direction now he's really going to have to point out hillary clinton's fault, her negatives, and put the truth out there that he sees. >> but, jonathan allen, on the
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defense of marriage act vote, i'm not sure that bernie sanders has all the political ammunition that he wishes he had in that vote because we have not been able to find any record of -- anything in the congressional record of him speaking on it and his chief -- his campaign chief of staff said in a report in "slate" today, they found an old quote where the campaign chief of staff said, this vote was exclusively about states' rights. it was not about trying to defend the right of gay people to marry or fight for the right for gay people to marry and, indeed, bernie sanders was not in favor of gay people marrying. he simply didn't believe that marriage law would be legislated at the federal level, which was something that other believed at that time, too, who had no intention of supporting gay marriage. >> lawrence, as you know, people will give all sorts of reasons for votes. the votes speak for themselves.
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i think this is an issue that's a little bit muddied by time. it's hard to -- we're thinking back 20 years here. obviously that was a vote that at the time the house took, that the senate took, president clinton was in favor of the defensive marriage act, signed it. that looked perhaps a little different today than it might have at the time. the clinton argument is that it would have been worse if there had been a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. attempt to do that not only at the time but subsequently. i think the larger issue here is bernie sanders is for the first time really going after hillary clinton in an attempt to make her toxic to democrats. and that's been a big question, whether he would do that or not. he's been doing it a little bit on the campaign trail. i was in iowa with him in september as he went to a bunch of events. he was talking about their differences a lot but he russn't whalely going for the kill. i think in order for him to really get his campaign going and to have a chance against her, and again, this is a slim
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chance, but what he has to do is convince democrats that she would be a worse nominee, that she doesn't hold their values and that she would be a worse president. right now he hasn't made that sell. and if he doesn't go negative against her, he never will. >> he's been reluctant to mention her name on the campaign trail. he certainly did on rachel tonight, he didn't have much voice. let's listen to hillary talking about bernie in iowa without mentioning his name. the key words here were railing baines billionaires. that's how we know she's talking about bernie. listen to this. they don't have it but she said, i know and you know that it's not enough to just rail against the republicans or the billionaires. we actually have to win this election in order to rebuild the middle class. and so, april ryan, in there she gets the notion of railing against billionaires as being kind of hollow and she gets electability in there. we have to win this election.
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>> right now she looks like she is elect i believe. i mean, she -- for 11 hours she sat there -- i hate to go back over the benghazi hearings again. but for 11 hours she sat there, cool as a cucumber in many instances. she had a victory last week. and not only that, she had a victory at the debates. she really at this time looks very presidential. she looks elect i believe. bernie sanders has gained a lot of ground. he's, you know, the man who gives the -- he's so passionate. you can sit there right no front of him and you're tired just by listening to him be as passionate as he is. so he has to find a way in and she has to knock him down to take his numbers away from him so she can indeed be the nominee. so the fight is definitely on. >> april ryan and jonathan allen, thank you both for joining us tonight. up next, some truly horrible video captured today in a south carolina classroom where a police officer attacks a high schoolgirl.
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as signed to be the school resource officer at a high school in south carolina is under investigation tonight after a classroom incident today with a female student but was caught on video. >> come on. i'm going to get you up. put your hands behind your back. give me your hands. give me your hands. give me your hands. give me your hands. give me your hands. >> richland's county sheriff lott has seen the video and is, quote, very disturbed by it. the sheriff told a report from a local nbc station, quote, the student was showed she was under arrest for disturbing school and given instructions which she
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again refused. the video then shows the incident resisting and being arrested by the sro. she was asked to leave the classroom twice. aaron johnson, a student in the room who apparently saw the incident gave this account to nbc news. the girl was asked by the teacher mr. long to leave the classroom and go to the discipline office. she ignored him. then the admin straighter came in and asked her if he needed to get the resource officer. she ignored him. then the officer came in, he asked if she was going to go or if he had to make her go. then he grabbed her and pulled her out of her desk and she fell on the ground with the desk still on her. he then threw her across the room and then got on top of her. another truant is tried to stand up for her which also led to her arrest. the school district released this statement. we are working closely and in full cooperation with the richland county sheriff's department to conduct a thorough
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and complete investigation. the officer has been identified as deputy benefields and he has been placed on administrative duties pending the out come of the investigation. there were no injuries reported. coming up, is president obama close to a big deal with congressional republicans? did you know that good nutrition
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members were desperately searching for a new speaker, john boehner, mitch mcconnell, nancy pelosi and harry reid were quietly trying to govern. the bipartisan congressional leadership has been working with the white house on weeks on an agreement to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government through march 2017. although there is no compromise bill yet with any detail, the republican members of the house and senate met tonight with leadership to discuss the outlines of the agreement. here's republican congressman tom cole's reaction tonight. >> given where everybody is at all and where they were at on thursday and friday of last week, that's a bigger deal than i expected. it certainly beats a clean debt ceiling vote. >> e.j. dionne is back with us. we just have the outlines with us at this point. it would increase sequestration spending levels by $25 billion for military, another $25
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billion fordow me domestic spen. there are a bunch of things in here bhu it looks like it may be very difficult for the tea party wing of the republican party to accept this. >> right. well, i mean, this achieves a couple of major objectives that president obama had. he wanted to lift sequestration. the crazy artificial caps. he wanted the defense spending and domestic spending to go up in tandem. he didn't want it all to go to defense. the cuts in the bill don't cover all of the increases. about 30% that is not offset. so they're going to complain about that. and i suspect you might lose some democrats on this bill because there are cuts in medicare payments to doctors and some changes to the social security disability insurance fund. i assume pelosi is involved, they will have enough democratic votes. but the republicans may need to cough up more votes than usual to get the thing passed.
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>> we have john mccain saying tonight i think we could move forward with this. i think it's the best deal we can get. but who on that conservative wing in the republican house is going to think that raising the debt ceiling out to 2017 is going to be something that they can vote for? >> well, clearly the 40 or so freedom caucus members are going to be against it. i suspect a lot of other republicans are going to vote against it because i'm sure the communications -- right wing communications complex is going to raise a ruckus about this. but i think there will be a lot of republicans who will say, look, we just look bad when the government shuts down, when we threaten the debt ceiling. this gets us through the election. we don't have to worry about any of this stuff. i think they are -- could be quite a few republicans who would be very happy to put these fights off in the next presidency. >> this is going to be the big news of tomorrow.
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we'll be learning a lot more detail about it. e.j. dionne, thanks for joining us tonight. chris hayes is up next. tonight on "all in." >> so bush has no money. he's cutting. he's meeting today with mommy and daddy. and they're working on their campaign. >> whispers of a death spiral for the bush campaign. >> i've got a lot of really cool things that i could do other than sit around being miserable. >> tonight, inside jeb's latest troubles and why ben carson is pulling away in iowa. >> i wasn't always like that. >> plus, why donald trump today declared war on super pacs. martin o'malley on where democrats stand after the jefferson jackson dinner. and there has been yet another twist in the pharma bro saga. >> after this backlash, i may support a republican now. >> when "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes.